‘She drinks gin martinis, wears ping thong bikinis,’ must be one of the most striking opening lines I’ve heard this year. Punctuated with sassy 80s synths and crisp electronic production, Avery Cochrane’s Shapeshifting On A Saturday Night is a firework of a record.
Throughout its three-and-a-half-minute duration, Shapeshifting… sees Cochrane depicting the manic behaviour of someone determined to keep their real self hidden, as she describes:
‘This song is about not having a strong or prideful sense of self, so you instead morph into whatever you think people want from you, especially in the context of a night out with friends who you suspect don’t truly understand the real you (because you’ve never let them see it!!)’
Hailing from Seattle, Avery’s talent is in her ability to leverage unfiltered human experience and emotion within classic pop format. The result, as heard on Shapeshifting On A Saturday Night, sees big catchy hooks meet a depth of storytelling in a way that is cinematic and infectious. This is the rare example of a song where the verse is just as strong as the chorus, but the song’s biggest moments still see Cochrane shift things up a gear, creating something anthemic. All that glitzy energy is difficult to resist, and yet you can’t help but notice it is analogous to the shapeshifting Avery sings about, and she is just giving us what she knows we want. It is what Avery is singing about that is ultimately revealing, and gives the song its enduring energy.